Joe Louis Arena

If no one outside the Kings' locker room believed they could upset the Detroit Red Wings and win their first-round playoff series, they didn't care. "We're the only ones that matter. We've got to play the games," defenseman Aaron Miller said. "After the first two games, we knew we couldn't win playing that way. We made some changes, and they've worked. "I'm sure there are still people out there who don't think we can win. There's still a lot of work to do, but I like the way we're playing."

What did the Detroit Red Wings ever do to Ron Wilson? Well, they fired his father, Larry Wilson, as coach in 1977. They fired his Uncle Johnny too, in 1973. Then there was the time they told Ron's father he'd be playing in the minors for a few games. "Two weeks of conditioning," Ron remembers, still incredulous. "It ended up being 13 years." And all that was long before the Red Wings beat the Mighty Ducks in the first game in franchise history--smoking the Ducks, 7-2, on Oct.

The Los Angeles Cobras, winners of three straight, will play their second road game in five days, meeting the Detroit Drive tonight in a key Arena Football League game at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena. The Cobras and Detroit are tied for third place at 3-3, and tonight's game will match the league's top two quarterbacks. Matt Stevens of the Cobras leads the league in passing, having completed 103 of 187 for 1,399 yards and 32 touchdowns.

Kings will open a three-game trip tonight against the Detroit Red Wings at the Joe Louis Arena. The Red Wings beat the Kings, 7-2, last Wednesday at the Forum. The Kings have called up goaltender Glenn Healy from the minors because starting goalie Bob Janecyk is serving a five-game suspension for a stick-swinging incident with Peter Zezel of the Philadelphia Flyers. Healy played in New Haven Wednesday night. He will back up Darren Eliot.

The NCAA finals have come to a close . . . the winning team scores twice as much as its opponent, their fifth NCAA championship since 1973. No, we're not talking basketball, we're talking hockey. NCAA hockey at its best--15,034 fans fill Joe Louis Arena in Detroit to watch Wisconsin defeat Colgate, 7-3. Wisconsin has seven seniors, six of them NHL draft choices, two of them Los Angeles kids, Robert Mendel and Chris Nelson. Come on, last page? These kids deserve better.

John Byce scored three goals, including two before the game was four minutes old, to lead Wisconsin to a 7-3 victory over Colgate on Sunday and its fifth NCAA hockey title since 1973. The Badgers, with seven seniors, six of them NHL draftees, came out flying, outshooting Colgate, 10-5, in the first period. The Badgers took a 4-1 first-period lead on three power-play goals and one short-handed score before 15,034 at Joe Louis Arena. Colgate finished 31-6-1 and the Badgers 36-9-1.

The Ducks' first slump of the season has captain Paul Kariya puzzled. Losses Saturday at Ottawa and Thursday at Montreal have resulted in the Ducks' first losing streak since they opened the season by going scoreless in the first two games. "I don't have all the answers," Kariya said. "We have to get back to work and see if we can fix this. It's not like we don't have the talent or our system isn't right. "We're missing the one ingredient, which is work, which is the most important one."

When: 4:30 PST. Where: Joe Louis Arena. On the air: TV: Channel 13; Radio: 1150. Records: Kings 36-25-4, Red Wings 39-19-8. Record vs. Red Wings: 2-1-0. Update: After a 3-2-1 homestand, the Kings are on the road for the next four games, starting in Detroit against a team that gave them a 7-4 lashing last week at Staples Center. On the bright side, the Kings are 7-1-3 in their last 11 road games and their penalty-killing unit has been magnificent, killing off 13 straight penalties and 56 of the last 61 (91.8%)